The actor and guitarist recorded lead vocals for the cover version after being reminded that he’d played a singing role in 2007 Tim Burton musical movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

“It was just a song I felt we should do,” Depp said in a new video interview that also features Cooper and Joe Perry. “It’s always meant a lot to me; it meant a lot to me over the last few years.”

Cooper added: “I knew Bowie pretty well but I didn’t have an emotional connection to him like that, as much as Johnny did. Johnny says, ‘Well, you sing it,’ and I said, ‘No, you sing it.’ And he says, ‘I don’t sing.’ I said, ‘You did Sweeney Todd…’ Reminding him that he sings! And he sings it better than I could ever sing it.”

You can watch the interview below:

“I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten that I did Sweeney Todd,” Depp admitted, to which Cooper noted it was “very hard” to forget “a project that took two years.” Depp replied: “But if you don’t see it, it’s almost like it doesn’t exist, you know?” He then thanked Cooper for telling him the movie “was good, by the way.”

The Vampires recorded their version of “Heroes” in Hansa Studios, Germany, where Bowie had cut the original. Depp recalled that working “in that huge, beautiful room, ornate room, was just incredible.” Cooper added: “If you’re going to do a cover, especially that cover, do it there.” Perry remembered watching Depp reading the lyrics before they recorded, and appearing to become “possessed” as he started to sing and proceeded to “own the song.” “Well, it’s like anything – you don’t know you can do it till you try. I had no idea I could hit any of those notes."